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January 31, 2003/Shevat 28 5763, Vol. 55, No. 23
Camp Pearlstein reopens with new director
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
After last year's closure due to fire danger, Camp Charles Pearlstein is set to open this summer with a new director.
Jodi Woodnick is a former camper, counselor, unit leader, program director and social worker at Camp Pearlstein, the only Jewish residence camp in Arizona. The camp is operated by Temple Beth Israel and is located in the Prescott National Forest.
A licensed social worker, Woodnick looks forward to creating the same positive Jewish environment for campers that she enjoyed growing up.
"(Camp Pearlstein) has really shaped my entire Jewish identity," she says. "Working in this setting and helping kids to feel as inspired as I did at their age gives me something that I can't get anywhere else."
Woodnick says she first began to attend camp around the age of 10, and she's been at camp nearly every summer since. She even met her husband, Gregg Wood-nick, when they were counselors there. While she believes that camp has changed since she was younger, she says the important things have not.
"I remember the friendships (and) I remember loving going to services," she says. "The things that have stayed the same are the warmth and the family feeling."
Differences, she says, are in the activities, which have gotten better.
New activities this summer include an indoor climbing wall, an updated ropes course, on-site horseback riding, an updated art and ceramics facility and a new mountain biking depot with new mountain bikes.
Additionally, there have been changes in the lengths of sessions offered - there are one-, two-, three- and four-week sessions, depending on the age of the camper.
Since Camp Pearlstein was closed last year, many regular campers went to different camps last summer. While Woodnick says she's concerned that some campers may go back to the camps they were at last year rather than come to Camp Pearlstein, she feels confident that Camp Pearlstein's family feel will bring most campers back.
"Pearlstein is so much warmer and so much more Jewish feeling than the other camps and they're coming back, not because of the wonderful facilities, but because of the feeling that's generated," she says. "(We're) a small camp - only 150 kids at a time. You can walk around camp and know every single person. Where else can you have that?"
Prior to being hired by Camp Pearlstein in December, Woodnick spent the last three years working with Jewish Family and Children's Service as the coordinator of Jewish services. Her role was to work with Jewish agencies in the community including synagogues, schools and Camp Pearlstein. She says she'll use her knowledge to assemble a quality staff.
"As a social worker ... I know how important it is to have a well-trained and well-qualified staff," she says. "Training is going to happen throughout the summer."
Woodnick says she is still in need of quality staff, although she has several people who have been long-affiliated with Pearlstein coming back. Among those are Brian Schanerman who will be serving as assistant camp director, and Steve Gerard who will be working as an administrator helping Woodnick put the summer together.
Woodnick says she hopes that local families will see the benefit of choosing a camping experience so close to home.
"The fact that this camp is in our backyard makes it so great because (the campers) make friends that live where they live," she says. "They can continue the friendships throughout the year. ... It really enhances our Jewish community when people send their kids to Camp Pearlstein."
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